Star tip of the week: John Petrucci on writing music

"It does help if there's a complex arrangement"

Another week, another tasty star soundbite from the Guitar Techniques archive. Here's Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci on the benefits of writing with music…

"A lot of the time Dream Theater write the way that any other band would write: just in a rehearsal, playing off one another and seeing what happens.

"It does help if there's a complex arrangement, whether rhythmically or melodically, and you can write it out and give it to the other guy. Or say if the keyboard player is going to double something I'm going to do, I can just write it out instead of sitting there and going through it note by note."